The Authentic Messiah Matthew 11:2-11

People tend to gravitate toward what appears to be true and genuine.

Coffee.

It’s an incredibly valuable commodity — second only to oil. Americans drink 2.3 billion pounds of the stuff a year, more than any other country. And it’s very possible that you are responsible for about half of this consumption [or you could have some fun by filling in the name of someone on your church staff, notorious for his or her coffee binges].

Anyway. Talk about a serious caffeine addiction.

With the stakes so high, a federation of coffee growers in Colombia thought long and hard about what to do with Juan Valdez. You have surely seen Juan on television — he’s the fictional coffee grower who has been featured in ads for decades now, helping to establish “100 percent Colombian coffee” as an international brand.

Problem is, Juan is getting old. Fast Company magazine (May 2007) reports that he has become a bit of a joke, with recent ads showing him surfing — yes, surfing — with his faithful mule Conchita. Silly stuff. The...